Mott MacDonald is an employee-owned management, development and engineering consultancy serving the public and private sector around the world, with more than 16,000 staff worldwide.

Our International Development Services Unit, IDS, operates portfolios within the international development sectors of Environment, Climate, Water, Roads, Rural & Urban Development, Education, Health, Social and Economic Development in over 40 countries. Together we implement and manage projects in developing countries and emerging economies around the world, supporting national governments and municipalities in policy, planning, project design and delivery. We are committed to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and to provide our expertise to improve the lives of people in need.

Background

We are seeking two District-level Enterprise Development Officers (EDO) for long term roles for private sector development related to construction on a complex DFID-funded post-earthquake reconstruction programme covering four Districts (Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, Rasuwa). The programme aim is long-term positive change in the lives of people in earthquake-affected regions of Nepal. One position will be based in Dhading and one in Nuwakot.

The implementation phase of the programme commenced in May 2018 for a 4.5 year duration and will work in about 42 rural and urban municipalities in the four core districts and adjacent areas most affected by the earthquake. It comprises five Output Areas:

Support and provide capacity building to Government at central, district and local level in detailed year-wise reconstruction planning.

Direct physical reconstruction, including subcontracting and supervision of agreed priority earthquake reconstruction interventions, including reconstruction of water supply, foot trails, bridges, schools, public buildings, and potentially other areas.

Analysis of, and interventions to address, constraints to the private sector, including supply of labour, materials and transport in the construction sector.

Managing a Challenge Fund to leave no-one behind in the reconstruction effort and promote transformational change for women and girls.

An evaluation and learning component.

The Enterprise Development Officers will be responsible for identifying the key constraints for the MSMEs in the construction sector and helping design and delivery of interventions to facilitate alleviation of these constraints. S/he will ensure the delivery of the project activities at a district level in a timely manner to the desired quality, and mobilise and capacitate partner organisations. The input is initially for 12 months but may be extended for up to the project duration.

Job description

Reporting to the Private Sector Development (PSD) Lead, the District Enterprise Development Officers will:

Map existing MSMEs in the construction sector in the project districts;

Identify the key constraints that are restricting existing MSME from growing their business and new entrepreneurs from entering into the business;

Support PSD lead to develop project interventions to address these constraints;

Identify and mobilise district level partners to deliver project activities as per the project implementation plan;

Support MSMEs to develop their business plan and marketing strategy for their products;

Facilitate linkages between MSMEs and service providers such as technology providers, Banks and Financial institutions;

Identify any restrictive policies that makes doing the business difficult at the district level and provide support to facilitate the policy dialogues;

Capacity building of the Partner Organisation and their staff;

Coordination and collaboration with the relevant stakeholders including CSIDB and the local municipalities;

Closely observe and monitor developments/trends in the market system and flag issues;

Prepare the periodic report of the project progress and share with PSD lead;

Provide necessary inputs in other output areas, mainly to output area 4 (Challenge Fund), for enterprise development

Other tasks as assigned by PSD lead

Candidate Specification

At least Bachelor’s Degree in business administration, management or other relevant discipline with at least five years of work experience in related fields, or Master’s degree with 3 years relevant experience

Strong communication, analytical and report writing skills with fluency in spoken and written English and Nepali

Knowledge and skills in basic computing, demonstrated inter-personal skills in working with a multi-disciplinary team

Good knowledge and experience on the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) development preferably the enterprises of the construction materials

Demonstrated understanding of the challenges of post-earthquake reconstruction

Willing to travel extensively throughout the project area, including on foot as well as by jeep and motorbike